Lebanon: Cholera fears for communities uprooted by war

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that there is a response plan drawn that aims at boosting surveillance, contact tracing and water sampling.

It was confirmed in the northernmost governorate of the country, Akkar.

Speaking in Geneva late on Wednesday, Tedros pointed out that the Lebanese health authorities began an oral vaccination campaign in August with a target of 350,000 people.

However, this health campaign had been “interrupted by the escalation in violence,” he said, referring to stepped up exchanges between Hezbollah and the Israeli military since the Gaza war began in October, and last month’s escalation of air strikes by Israel against Hezbollah’s continued rocket attacks on Israeli settlements.

Fears for the unvaccinated

The WHO Acting Representative for Lebanon, Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar noted that a significant number of the people who fled the violence in the south of the country had no protection against cholera in poor water and sanitation environment. Authorities estimate that each day, migration continues and some one-point two million people have been displaced by it.

“It might spread very fast,” he said. “Because some of those communities from the south and from Beirutlevision don’t have [much] cholera immunity for the last 30 years and the risk of spread is very high.”

The immediate threat of cholera has added another concern for UN humanitarians and their partners as they continue to operate amid devastating airstrikes reported last night in eastern Lebanon and another earlier this week on a government building in the southern town of Nabatieh which claimed 16 lives including the mayor.

According to WHO chief Tedros, the UN agency has shipped medical equipment to priority hospitals to respond to the attack outcomes on the Israel regime’s targets. It is also collaborating with the Lebanese Red Cross and the hospital to provide necessary items for making blood donation safer “and I must tell you, we’re teaching surgeons to save lives and limbs,” Tedros said. He added: In itself, Aid becomes the means to prolong their suffering, and as such the solution to this suffering is not aid but peace.

Attacks on healthcare

Data on WHO tracking shows that in the escalation of hostilities that started one month ago, 23 attacks on health care that caused 72 deaths and 43 injured to health care workers and patients.

On its part, the Lebanese authorities have said that they have recorded 2,200 lives lost since October last year.

“Several health facilities have been forced to close down, especially in the south because of the heavy shelling and insecurity,” Tedros said, adding that almost half of the primary health care centres in conflict-affected areas are closed and 11 hospitals have had to be evacuated either fully or partially. “Hospitals are alread putting up a very big fight as they treat an unusual number of injuries, at the same time aiming to maintain critical services,” he said.

Gaza polio drive priority

In Gaza which is in the second round of the polio vaccination campaign, the WHO chief said its success depended on “reaching at least 90 per cent” of children below 10 years of age across the enclave “in all communities and neighbourhoods”.

The fight against poliovirus requires at least two doses of vaccine, Tedros said, adding that escalating hostilities in northern Gaza had “paused” humanitarian operations.

“During the first days of October, of 54 attempts to enter northern Gaza for the_UN missions, only one wasIENTATION”, he said. “The rest were rejected,withdrawn or blocked. We appealed to Israel to allow WHO and partners in the north so that we can assist those most in need.”

The mission from the UN health agency and partners finally delivered supplies and fuel to Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals last Saturday after nine attempts and Tedros recalled that he continues to condemn the attacks on healthcare across Gaza.

This was demonstrated on Monday when the courtyard of Al Aqsa hospital in Deir Al Balah where people were sleeping in tents was bombed, “the eighth time that Al Aqsa hospital compound has been attacked since March this year”.

UN aid chief Joyce Msuya said in a briefing to the Security Council on Wednesday that in the past week, the fatalities estimated at around 400 and some 1,500 injured in Gaza, according to the report. “The world has witnessed friends and patients of Al Aqsa Hospital and displaced persons who are burning alive near Al Aqsa Hospital,” said the Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

Ms. Msuya said that since the 1st of October over 55,500 people have been forced out of Jabalia in northern Gaza ‘others are trapped in their houses, water and food gone’.

She said no food aid got into the north from 2 to 15 October, and ‘when a trickle was allowed in – and all are basic necessities required in the process of surviving’. Provision of the existing food supplies to the affected individuals goes on but these stocks are rapidly depleting.”